Wednesday, January 22, 2014

"Be Holy as I am Holy."




            Living in community isn’t exactly the easiest thing. I’m in seminary, so the community is like Houghton but about 50x smaller. There are 60 people in my session (class). There are 53 in the session behind mine. I sometimes look back on all of Shirlz’ messages on community and think… You don’t know community until you go to seminary. You think the Houghton Bubble is bad? Pfft! Child’s play.
            Within this post, it’ll seem as if I’m painting a negative picture on seminary. I’m sorry, that’s not my intention (because seminary is actually a great place to be. It’s truly rewarding, enriching, and a positive life changing experience). What I wanted to do was give you some kind of personal insight as to what I’ll be writing about; being who you were created to be.

           The campus that I live on is incredibly small. It takes no longer than 5 minutes to walk from one side of campus to the other. Everyone knows everybody …and their business.  While knowing your community isn’t a bad thing, sometimes it’s frustrating when everyone seems to know the little details about your life; especially if not all of it is truth. Unfortunately and also quite unsurprisingly, seminary is a gold mine for the enemy to run rampant. You have people here who are following the Lord’s will for their life and they walk into this battlefield and get weary from being attacked so quickly. 

          From what I’ve noticed in my 1 ½ years here is that two of the biggest tools the enemy uses to pull us from Christ-likeness, or holiness, is 1) gossip and 2) insecurities. Both of these unnecessary evils lead to destruction of the self and broken relationships; and most of all – it leads to unrighteousness.
          Through allowing our insecurities to blossom, we allow a poison to overcome us and altar our minds and hearts to what is untrue. I, along with many, have been guilty of this. It starts out simple. There’s a flaw about yourself that you’re not too pleased with, but you’re able to live with. However, when used against us, the insecurity starts to dig deeper and hurt more. It then moves toward the extreme: altering pictures of yourself to change your appearance, comparing your appearance to someone that you can’t stand to use as motivation to be thinner, posting on social media about every accomplishment you’ve ever had – wholeheartedly craving for a double digit number within a tiny red circle to find that assurance you need. This is in no way reflecting a loving Savior nor being wholly complete in Him.
            Then there’s gossip; something that we all know is a sin, but tend to toss that knowledge to the side (again, of which, I fall victim to). The rumor mill can bring destruction to relationships, friendships, and personalities. The smaller the community, the bigger the mill. The gossip doesn’t even have to be of malicious intent. Sometimes, all it takes is for one person to voice their opinion on a situation or person and before you know it, easily swayed minds and selective hearing ears have taken in something false; and the wildfire will then commence. I’ve seen it happen. In fact, I’ve been on both ends of it. Gossip is Grade A Poison. Participating in gossip opens up a part of you, a part that is not how you were originally created to be, that is ugly and shrewd. By participating in gossip, we are verbally destroying God’s creation. And in the same regards, by allowing our insecurities to go to the extreme, we are emotionally and mentally destroying God’s creation.

           The sad part about all of this is it’s not just happening in one small community. It’s happening within the community that is the body of believers. How will others know we are Christians by our love if the love is not there? John Wesley has much to say about this topic in both of his sermons entitled Original Sin and Image of God. He writes that we were created to be in Christ’s likeness, but through our first parents, we all have fallen short of the glory of God. Because of our disobedience, we lost that image. However, we have that beautiful hope; we know that it doesn’t have to stay that way.
            By God’s grace, we can receive salvation. Upon receiving this beautiful gift from our loving Savior, He can heal this disease, this poison within us, so that we may walk in His light and know the holiness – the righteousness – that He has for us. In Wesley’s sermon Working Out Our Own Salvation, he puts it like this: “Deny yourselves every pleasure which does not prepare you for taking pleasure in God, and willingly embrace every means of drawing near to God, though it be a cross, though it be grievous to flesh and blood” (Outler & Heitzenrater, 1991, pg. 409).* Although it may feel so good to “vent” about people that upset us and put ourselves down because “there’s nothing good about us anyway”, deny it! These are not of Christ! They are lies and tactics from the enemy that will try to separate us from God. If we allow it to posses our hearts and minds, then we choose death instead of the life that Christ promises us through Him. 

          Yes, we all have insecurities. As our own worst critics, we’ll always find something about ourselves that we don’t like. Don’t look at yourself as incomplete. God created you in His likeness. Be proud of who you are in Him. Don’t allow your insecurities to bring you to a place of competition and depression. Don’t allow these lies that you’re being fed to sway your heart to think that what you need to be satisfied is that notification or a fake alteration to your figure or even that outcome of the comparison game. What brings pure joy and complete wholeness is not only living with Christ, but living with the assurance of faith; that we are God’s and He is ours. Be who God created you to be. Be genuine. 

            “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” – 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV). Build one another up. Encourage, support, forgive, and love. Seek that holiness, that Christ- likeness, which God has for you. Forget the slander of both self and of others. Strive for holiness. Strive for forgiveness. Strive for wholeness. Strive for oneness. Strive for love. 

              So follow the words of John 6:43 – “’Stop grumbling among yourselves’, Jesus answered.” Cling to His promise of holiness and righteousness. Get rid of the poison that keeps you from Christ. Seek Him in all you do, say, think, and feel. Make Him your number one priority. Live for and with Christ today. Love others as you share Christ with them. Reflect His holiness. Be holy as He is holy. 

* A book entitled "John Wesley's Sermons: An Anthology" edited by Albert C. Outler & Richard P. Heitzenrater.

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